Cigarette tubes generally comprise a paper cylinder having an open end and a filter end. Various machines exist in the market for allowing a user to fill such tubes with loose tobacco to make their own cigarettes.
An example of a prior art cigarette tube filing machine includes the Supermatic II device distributed by Jack Gee's Sales (see http://www.jackgee.com/supermatic_ii.htm). Composition of the internal portions of this device can be found at the following websites: http://www.jackgee.com/parts.htm and http://www.ryomagazine.com/july2001/injectors.htm. This tabletop device is hand crank operated and includes an open rectangular compression chamber on the top of the device into which a user places tobacco to be compressed and formed into a cigarette. The operator turns the hand crank clockwise to compress and eventually inject the compressed tobacco into a cigarette tube affixed to a nozzle on the exterior housing of the device. More specifically, when the user turns the hand crank from its rest position through approximately 90 degrees, a compression slide is moved linearly towards the compression chamber and eventually compresses the tobacco in the chamber into a cylinder to form a plug of tobacco. Thereafter when the hand crank is turned further, through approximately an additional sixty degrees, a mechanism on the hand crank contacts a linear injection slide. This injection slide moves perpendicular to the now-stationary compression slide and parallel to the affixed cigarette tube to push the compressed tobacco plug through the compression chamber and into the waiting cigarette tube.
A similar but automated device is the MackRoller device, distributed by the CigFactory (see http://www.webbspot.com/mackroller/). This device is electrically automated, and allows the user to merely place the cigarette tube on the device, turn on a switch, and compression and injection are performed automatically. However, the MackRoller device appears similar in its structure and internal mechanisms to Supermatic II, with the exception that the hand crank has been replaced by a motor to provide the necessary rotational movement. Videos showing the operation of the MackRoller device can be found at http://www.webbspot.com/mackroller/cigarette_rolling_machine_vide4.html. All websites and associated videos disclosed in this background section are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
Another automated device for filling cigarette tube with tobacco includes the EasyRoller device manufactured by CP Rollings ApS of Denmark. This device is also automated and can fill an affixed cigarette tube by merely pushing a button. The device essentially comprises a motor with a screw mechanism affixed to its rotor. The screw mechanism is placed at the bottom of a tobacco hopper for holding loose tobacco and continues through a metal tube onto which the cigarette tube is affixed. When operated, the screw mechanism turns to direct tobacco from the hopper and to compact or “screw” it into the waiting cigarette tube.
These and other cigarette tube filling devices are disclosed in the Information Disclosure Statement that the inventors have filed with this patent application, all of which are incorporated herein by reference. However, none of these devices are believed suitable to service the “roll your own” cigarette market, as they each suffer various drawbacks: some machines are dangerous; others do not adequately fill the cigarette tubes, or do so loosely and irregularly; some do not fill tubes with adequate speed, etc.
Moreover, a problem that seems pervasive in the cigarette tube filling art is that such machines lack the ability to fill tubes with a precise quantity of tobacco on a consistent basis. The Supermatic II and MackRoller device discussed earlier provide a good illustration of this problem. Although such devices can generally adequately compress and inject tobacco into waiting tubes, they depend on the user of the machine to adequately fill the compression chamber with a sufficient amount of tobacco by essentially stuffing some amount of tobacco into the chamber by hand. The machine thus has no means to automate, or meter, a proper amount of tobacco for eventual injection inside of the tubes. Moreover, such devices generally lack means to deal with different cuts of cigarette tobacco, such as shag cut or bulk cut, or tobaccos of various moisture contents, etc. The result is generally the formation of cigarettes which are uneven or incomplete in their density, and/or which may not burn properly or fall apart when burned, which cigarette smokers generally find undesirable.
The present disclosure provides several different embodiments of cigarette tube filling machines which overcome or mitigate such problems of the prior art. In particular, the disclosed machines, amongst other benefits, contain mechanisms for metering a proper amount of tobacco to be compressed and eventually injected. Whether fully manual, partially automatic, or fully automatic versions of the disclosed machine are used, the result is the formation of cigarettes which contain consistent and even amounts of tobacco.